The Big Year 2023!

 My friends!

My life keeps evolving, changing and finding it's best ways. I love the change, movement and everything I have achieved. I am constantly in search of a balanced way of living and past 7 years I have put most of my energy to my work. I love that I have been able to help so many of you, I am in awe about how many wonderful clients I have met and how this part of my life came about: I made it work. I was good, I achieved my goals. I am super proud of me!

All this is about my work in healing business, as a massage therapist. In more recent years (yes, after the covid hit) many of you have learned that I am not only a bodyworker, I am also a Finnish teacher and I dream about getting my book published. Yes, I have 3 passions and I have been trying to find a balance between all three. Balanced is Painless - that is my slogan, so I should be really good at this. Am I? Am I balanced and even more respectfully: am I painless? 

I have made some pretty big decisions in my life, like to shift my professional life towards healing people and losing a steady income in educational field, or to move to US and start my life completely all over again. The first one I made out of love to myself, since being a teacher in ever more demanding world was getting harder and harder.  The second change happened out of love to my family, who wanted to experience the life in US. I made it, I created my own way and found my purpose for living here. 

Then, after covid, I found the teaching again. That I can keep teaching the subject that was first love of my life, Finnish Language, in my own terms, create my own curriculums and help my students to feel empowered, skillful and innovative in my own language. That I can be creative with my language in my second home. That I don't have to lose Finnish and my detour to bodywork and healing was the best detour ever, since it gave me a meaning and purpose in my second home country. 

That's life! You get what you give up. So, it is time to let something go, to make room for more balanced and painless life.  I am resilient, I am goal-oriented and I am moving forward in Kata's Way. It means that I will give up bodywork. I will not renew my massage license in 2024. 

This is my number 3 big decision in life. I need to be painless and balanced. I need to give up the work that is taking too big of a toll to my body and give time to be creative. From this point on, Kata's Way is more about Teaching Finnish than bodywork. I am flexible and able to make hard decisions. This is my decision. I still have a massage license for 2023, so if you are an old client, you may contact me, but I am not taking new clients for massage.

But I do take new students, so if you are interested in learning Finnish, I am your girl. Read more on top of the page or contact me via gmail (kataopettaja). 

Thank you and enjoy the Holiday Season! 

Holiday Season

Happy Holidays for everyone!

Although we do not celebrate Thanksgiving in Europe, I do appreciate this wonderful time to spend time with families and friends. I think we all need a break once and awhile. I was happy to have my daughter home for a long weekend and start some baking of Finnish goodies.

Today is Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be followed by Small Business Tuesday, but I will not have any sale or campaign now nor closer to Christmas! I have set my pricing to a very reasonable level considering my specialties, and there will be no change in my pricing next year. I do appreciate my clients tremendously, so I will have a tiny Christmas present waiting for you when you if you are having your appointment before Christmas. I do not wish to get any gifts: Your appointment or referral is the best gift I can get!

I am working normally until December 22nd and I will have a week of rest right after Christmas. From January 2nd I have appointments available Monday - Thursday so, that on Mondays and Wednesdays I have an availability to work late at the evening (last appointment at 6 pm). This scheduling is valid as long as I am in the Ballantyne Village (our lease is ending in April).

I am looking forward to a new year and some changes although I have no idea where I will find myself. I can promise for sure, that I will have all my services available for you also 2017!

I wish you Happy Holidays and please make sure, that you will some relaxing time for yourself too!

P.S. I do have Gift Certificates available if you want to give to someone special a treat to the best treatment in town... It's Kata's Way where Balanced is Painless.

Happy October!

October is a month of enjoying life. Enjoy the weather here in NC, enjoy the routines that has set back after the hectic summer, and enjoy the quiet time before holiday season. That's what I have been doing! The morning walks at the greenway are the best thong to do especially in October.

I also took a trip to Washington DC since we had to renew our passports, and I fell in love with the capital city. I can't wait to go back and visit some more museums and learn more about this nation! The first trip was just wandering around and taking a tons of pictures to show my friends back home that this really exists; the capitol is not made just for movies and television series... maybe you don't know the feeling of  'living in the movie' that is pretty familiar to us who have moved here from another country. At least for us who have grown up following the American television shows and movies.  'Living as in a television' was a constant feeling the first year and half in US, but it's getting rarer all the time. At this point (4,5 years in US) I probably need to pinch myself when I'll be back home in Finland next summer!

My work is still my passion and you can check my availability on the right column of this blog, or just call/text me. I am working some Fridays, so please feel free to ask those too. Unfortunately I am not available on weekends, I truly need at least 2 days off in a row every week.

Some of you have heard that Ballantyne Chiropractic Wellness might be moving out of the Ballantyne Village, which is true. We don't know the schedule yet, nor do I know if I'm following Dr. Snipes, but I will have an office and availability to serve my clients all the time whatever happens! In case of transition period, I will be seeing my clients at my house in Blakeney area. So, exiting new things are right on the corner.

I think this is a perfect time of the year but 'cold' season is on it's way, so I want to wish you an amazing fall, and please, stay warm when you prepare yourselves for the holiday season. I'm planning some specials towards end of the year, but at this point there's no more workshops to be planned at Ballantyne location. Don't wait until last minute to feel your body aching, call/text me now to make your appointment to a very special care.

It's Kata's Way and it means: balanced is painless! Come and let's check your balance, you deserve the best care in town.

Being a self-employed

AI have worked in US for about 2 years and 3 months now. I am so lucky to have found the best possible people to help me with this journey and I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart! You all know who you are, so I am not naming anybody here in public.

I am also blessed to have a bunch of open-minded, super-nice and wonderful clients, who challenge me and my knowledge, but most of all, who grow with me and are patient to take in my learning experience as a body healer. I could not do this without you!

But I am still a sole proprietor, which means that at the end of the day, I got to make all the decisions and I am the only accountable person in my business. That has led me to do certain decisions like starting my LLC to be sure that I am covered if anything would happen. I am also adamant to make my living out of this (that my friends, as a massage therapist is everything but easy), so I need to be able to compete with all the other massage therapist in the surrounding area. And I want to be able to work in this business for years even if I am not getting any younger, so I have made some plans to take care of myself.

It also means that I need to do everything myself for my business: I do my laundry (yes, I hate those sheets once and a while because I am washing them every single day), my bookkeeping (I don't like numbers at all, but I like being in charge), my marketing, networking and all the planning. I know that I could easily pay someone to do certain things for me, but here comes the truth: every penny that I pay for someone else, is out of my salary and I can not afford losing those pennies. I am simply trying to make my living here. And yes, I like learning new things; especially I like it, when I figure something out and manage to solve some problem.

I am in a good place in my life because I have supporting husband, life skills and something special to offer. The most important thing in my business is my wide range of massage therapy skills to help and heal my clients! For me that is simply giving them the best possible care each and every time they come in. I can not have bad days (but if I do, I'll let you know and apologize). I also believe that one happy client will bring you two new ones if I do my job well.

And still, this is just a tip of the iceberg. I also know that having a successful business you need to keep on track with the newest marketing tools and inform your potential clients about my way of doing this work. Because my way is original Finnish and it is different.

Recently I have put some effort on marketing and learning new skills, since I haven't been using my computer too much lately (except wandering around in facebook).

Today I am especially proud of myself because I have been able to handle my facebook business page, opened my new business instagram, and was able to create pdf-files to embed into my web page, which actually is my blog. All these business tools, that we should be able to handle, and this it my decision: I only use free marketing tools! So please, understand how much effort a middle-aged massage therapist has to put to all these new tools and then: share, like and let your friends know that I exist and arrange these workshops!

To get any coverage with these free tools, my posts need to be liked! If one person likes my post, it will be shown to dozen others. The facebook, of course, wants me to pay for this coverage, but I refuse to. So, please, keep helping me out and hit that like-button for me! 

Thank you all and it is Kata's Way (or no way).

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And check out our Workshops this fall!
Pure Haven Essentials Workshop
Breast Health Workshop